Lick Construction Collab - Finished! Options

[David Wallimann]

The melodic lick construction collab is now done! It was a real pleasure to review your entries. You all had a lot of things to say musically in here which made this very inspiring to review!
Here is the final mix followed by a deeper review of all our players.

 Lick_building_class_collab.mp3 ( 17.8MB ) Number of downloads: 277


Thanks again everyone for taking time to record something on this, I hope you find the following inspiring!
You all did a wonderful job!

Matt23

There are some really nice melodic elements in your lead. I like the simpleness of your lead, although the faster shreddy type of licks at the end are a good addition.

One of the main things I suggest you work on is rhythm placement. Maybe spend a bit more time on working with a metronome playing with short simple rhythm ideas. You don't need to go fast while working on this. As a matter of fact, it's actually harder to play with much precision at slower speeds. Recording yourself while practicing this kind of thing can do wonders as it's sometimes difficult to be critical of your playing while actually playing...
A great exercise that would certainly make you progress even faster would be to learn the lead you played here and record it again lick by lick making sure every note is placed exactly where it should on the tempo. Also, if you have a guitar notation software such as Guitar Pro, I recommend that you transcribe your take. That will help you visualize what the rhythm placement shoudl sound like.

Keep up the good work!


Berko

I like the sound you chose for this. The delay and reverb give this a nice smooth atmospheric touch that emphasizes the notes you are playing.

I do hear a problem with some of the notes you used here though. Every once and a while, you are going outside of the A minor scale. It's true that sometimes, playing outside of the original key has its advantages, but in this particular case where the chord progression is slow, playing outside of the key will have a negative effect on the listener's ear. If you are not quite comfortable with the natural minor scale (Aeolian), you can always use a minor pentatonic scale. That is because the minor pentatonic scale is extracted from a natural minor scale (it just has 5 notes instead of 7).
Besides working on the different possible scale positions, I recommend that you work on hearing the scales and recognizing them before even playing them. There are several ways to doing so. I suggest you start with a good recognition of intervals. Start with simple intervals such as 3rds, 5th and 2nds. That is key to a good melodic improvisation.

You're on the right track though! You have some nice melodic lines going on in here. FIxing the off notes will surely fix the problem.


Skennington

Several aspects of your lead are very catchy and worth developing. First of all, I really liked he longer notes at the opening of your solo. They help the listener dive into your musical universe with ease. That's good! You also added a nice touch of vibrato on these notes helping them to be even fuller of meaning.

Now there are a few things that you could work on to make things even smoother. First, a few of your licks were a bit off beat. I'm thinking about the repetitive lick on bars 5 and 6. It's an easy fix. Also, a few bends are slightly flat. You can develop a very simple yet effective exercise for that by playing a note anywhere on the fretboard, then bending the note a fret or two below until it sounds exactly like the starting point. I'm sure these little problems are just because you probably improvised the whole thing, right?
My suggestion for you would be to take that lead and memorize it as a written piece. That will give you a chance to fix all mistakes making your playing even smoother next time you improvise.

Keep up the great work, you have some solid ideas well worth listening to!


Audiopaal

First of all, I need to tell you that the sound you used is very pleasing to my ears. It is not over saturated and serves your melody very well. I love the laid back feel you have when playing this. Your melodic lines are played with good control and good note choices.

One thing I would suggest for you is to work on linking these ideas together. An exercise that Paul Gilbert teaches to his student has been found very effective for that. Play a simple short lick, then answer that lick with another on starting the way the previous one ended. It's very simple, but can lead to great results in your phrasing. While improvising, your ideas will be better linked and make even more sense. You can also try that exercise without the guitar. That will be very beneficial for your inner ear and help you organize your musical ideas.

Taking this approach for anything you do musically will give you great results, keep up the awesome work!


Paiva

I liked how your lead built from simple notes in the low registry to gradually build towards higher notes on your fretboard. It was a little difficult to hear exactly what you were playing as you sound was a bit bassy and muddy, but did I hear octaves in the opening? It sounds good! I really like how you opened things up on the D minor chord. The choice of notes worked really well there.

A few things to consider for your development would be first of all to work a little on your tone. Play a bit with your EQ, a little less bass, more highs and a bit of mids might help clean things up. You can also try to lower the gain of your distortion. Sometimes when recording, pulling off the gain will help your ideas to sound clearer to the listener.
Another aspect you could work on is velocity variation. That kind of goes along with your tone. What I mean here is that all your notes sound as they were played at the same volume. Tryin to vary that will help your ideas carry a deeper meaning. You can practice that aspect of your playing by playing a scale starting with a very soft note, gradually increasing the velocity of the notes as you move along the scale. The difficulty is to keep a steady tempo while working on that. I think that will help your playing a lot!

Keep working hard like you are, you have some great ideas!


SensE

You have a nice idea going on in the intro! I like the repetitive lick there, unfortunately, I think there is a bad note in there that doesn't quite work with the key. I heard a Bb in there which is a minor 2nd. That clashes with the Major 2nd of the A minor key. Here is the formula for the A minor scale used over the backing track:
Root-Maj2nd-min3rd-4th-5th-min6th-min7th
If you are not too comfortable with that scale yet, you can use its little brother the minor pentatonic scale which is extracted from that minor scale. You have some good chops, but they don't always follow the scale used and therefore sound a bit disorganized. I recommend you take it a few steps back on the technical side and concentrate on basic things such as writing very simple ideas over a given key. That will develop your ear and give you a solid foundation to an already descent technique. I know how frustrating it is to have to slow down, especially when you already have the chops like you do, but that is the only way I know to do that. Try it and I promise that you will soon see amazing progress!

Keep up the good work!


Outlaw2112

Your lead has some cool ideas man! I like the use of artificial harmonics, the sound you are using definitely helps in that matter for sure! Your technique sounds good and seem to allow you to express yourself the way you want. I don't think that's a barrier there.What I would suggest for you is to develop more coherence between your ideas. You can read the comments left to AudioPaal concerning that subject. I would also suggest to you that you work a bit on rhythm placement, especially in your faster licks. It's nothing really bad, but just slightly off tempo every once and a while, especially in your faster licks. Just take a small segment of your lead, and make an exercise out of it with your metronome. I guaranty that a regular metronome workout like that will fix all your problems and bring you to the next level.

Overall this was a real good take my friend!


Crazyfret

You lead is so well built! I love the coherence of ideas and the way all your segments complement each other nicely. You have a good rhythm placement and nice pitch in your bends. Good job!

Here is what you could work on to make your playing even better! I would take that them you wrote here and try playing it with more of a guitarist approach. Maybe replace one note by a trill, or maybe approach one of the notes by a bend. There are tons of possibilities here. You already have the hard part which is to come up with a simple melodic theme. Now you just need to dress it up. Another approach to this would be to take a short section of your lead, and play it on a different area of the fretboard. That will force your fingers to play the theme a little differently and make some notes more "bendable" than others.

Keep practicing, your development as a musician is really good!


Toroso

I can tell in your lead that you have lots of things to say, that's a great thing! It's one of the most important things to have for a musician, and you have it!

Now, let's talk about how to covey your ideas into musical phrases. Although I get what you are saying musically, the choice of notes is a bit hindered by the control over these notes. The notes you play sound very "mechanical" and I would recommend working on your vibrato. That will make all your notes come alive and be even more musical. There are several vibrato technique available. None are really better than others, it's just a mater of personal preference. The first way is to play a note and make that string vibrate from left to right in a repetitive motion. You can also use the same kind of technique except that this time you will have an up/down motion. There is also a third way which is a combination of the previous two techniques leading you to have a circular motion over the strings.
I also suggest that you work on your pitch. A few of the bends you played are not in tune. That's an easy fix if you do it seriously. Just use a note as a reference and bend a lower fret so that it reaches that original note. Doing that in as many areas of the fretboard will be very beneficial.

Those are fairly common problems you have and they are pretty easy to get rid of. You already have things to say, all you need is to clean that up a bit. You're on the road to great success, congrats!


Sollesnes

I hear some really good ideas in your lead! I particularly like your lick on the chord change on Dm. It really opens up things a lot and gives your work a breath of fresh air.

There is one thing that I would suggest for you. Work on phrasing a little. You have some really good ideas, but because of the fact that there are almost no silences in your solo, all these ideas end up sounding a little confusing to the listener. That's a very easy fix. Try developing some of theses ideas adding some longer notes and taking more time to share them with these more repetitive motifs so that the listener can really get what you are telling him. As guitar players we need to remember that the listeners need a lot more time to fully appreciate what you are telling him musically. The greatest way to doing so is to just take your time. Repeat to him what you are playing several times with slight variations until he can fully appreciate what you are creating. Sometimes that means that you won't be able to use all the ideas you have, just pick a few and develop them.
The silences that we talked about earlier are there to give the listener time to digest what you just played. If you have that in mind while playing, you will soon be an expert at that kind melodic playing.

You are doing great there man! Good job!


Velvet Roger

You did a good job mixing nice melodic licks with faster guitarist tricks in there. Very good! I also really love the fact that you ended your lead like you started it. That is a very good thing to do to give some kind of closure to a solo. You did very good!

Now for the improvement part, I would would work basically on just cleaning up your technique a bit. The main thing involved here for you is only patience and willingness to start on very simple exercises such as finger placement and hand synchronization. That is mainly for the faster sections, the slower ones work well. Your speed is already there when you play faster stuff, that is not what I think you need to focus on. Here is what I suggest for you here: take a short faster lick that you played in your take, and play it over a metronome at a slower comfortable speed where you can play the lick almost with closed eyes. Repeat that lick over and over at the same speed to develop a strong synchronization with your two hands. It might sound mechanical doing so over and over, but that is exactly what you are trying to do. The mechanics developed here are the foundations of higher speeds. While practicing at super slow speed, spend time analyzing your movements and try to focus on placing your fingers exactly where they should on the frets. Also be aware of the fingering you are using. You'll find that for some licks it might be better to use different fingers than you would in a conventional "one finger per fret" approach.

I am certain that a regular approach like that will help you develop into the true gifted musician you already are. Keep up the awesome work!


UncleSkillet

You have a beautiful theme going on there, I love that! You have a very nice sense of melodic phrasing that is easy to follow and because of the repetitiveness of it helps the listener really get into what you are telling him. Bravo!

My recommendation is to clean up things just a little in the faster parts. Your technique is quite clean, but can always be cleaner (that goes for all of us guitar players). That is done by repetition at slow speed with a conscious effort on rhythm placement. I find it often beneficial to tab the section you want to clean up in midi or even better a guitar notation software such as Guitar Pro. Seeing what you play helps you visualize internally how things should sound in tempo.
Besides that, I don't have much to suggest besides the typical keep working on what you are at the moment as you are obviously on the road that leads to better musical achievement.

Great work!

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